Happy Holidays to all TREES Members and Friends of the Organization,
We would like to thank everyone for making 2007 an incredible year. The support that we are receiving from all of our friends allows us to create and support our amazing people and projects in the field.
We are hearing from more new projects than ever before, and are excited to be able to spread our work into new areas. Our business partners are creating innovative ways to incorporate tree planting into their businesses, which is helping us to plant more trees. And our membership continues to grow steadily, including over 6,600 people who now receive this e-newsletter.
We love to hear from you! Please call us or send an email to info@treesftf.org and share your thoughts and suggestions for the coming year.
Thank you again! And now, on to the…
HOT NEWS:
News from the Field
-New Partner: The University of South Florida
-Omar: Preparing for the Dry Season
-Honduras: Introducing Josh Bogart
-Translating Agroforestry Training Manual
Climate Change in the News
Tis the Season – Plant Trees for the Holidays
Event Reports
-Green Festival San Francisco and Seattle
Seed Packages and Call for Submissions
TREES is on Skype
Partnerships
News from the Field
New Partner: The University of South Florida
The University of South Florida is one of our newest partners. Their school of Social Studies invites community leaders from around the Developing World for extended training in community development, environmental education and other vital subjects. TREES was invited by the program chairman, Dr. Jerry Miller, to conduct a one-day workshop for leaders from Haiti about the environmental situation in their country. That day we developed partnerships with 18 non-government organizations scattered throughout Haiti who will be starting tree-planting projects with our help in the season soon to begin.
Senegal: Omar Prepares for the Dry Season
Our winter edition of the Johnny Ipil Seed Newsletter features an article about Omar’s preparations for the dry season and the year ahead. By stocking tar-coated brooms at our training center, he is prepared to fight fires that threaten the community. You can read more about Omar in the newsletter, which is available online at http://www.plant-trees.org/news.htm
Honduras: Introducing Josh Bogart
Josh Bogart, a 3rd year Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras, will be joining our staff in January. He will be based in-country, in the town of Siguatepeque, where he will develop and coordinate our Honduras program. He grew up on a small farm in Northern PA, graduated from Lycoming College with an honors bachelors degree in biology and a minor in environmental science. He is currently completing a MS in Forest Entomology at SUNY college of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF), and has spent two and a half years in Peace Corps Honduras working with reforestation, biogas, and diversification of production in Guiamaca, Honduras. Get to know the rest of the staff online at www.plant-trees.org/contact/staff.htm
Translating Agroforestry Training Manual
Gangisetty, our field representative in Andhra Pradesh, India, recently wrote to inform us that he is almost complete with his translation of our Agroforestry Training Manual into Telegu, and Subramanian is working on translating it into Tamil. Our friends and partners in Honduras have helped us translate it into Spanish, and we hope to translate it into French in the coming year. If anyone with strong language skills in any language is interested in helping us to translate the manual (or posters and other training materials), please contact us at info@treesftf.org
Climate Change in the News:
Scientists from Tulane University released a study this week indicating that 320 million trees in Louisiana and Mississippi were damaged or destroyed by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina in 2005, making this the single largest forest disaster in the US to date. The decaying vegetation from this will release approximately 100 million tons of carbon – equal to the amount that all the trees in the United States take out of the atmosphere in a year. Researchers also found that the native tree species such as oak and longleaf pine along the effected Gulf Coast fared better on average than the species planted strictly for logging purposes. Unfortunately, forests devastated by the fierce storms now leave space for aggressive invasive plant species to take over. Director of conservation at the Nature Conservancy stated, "As the Chinese tallow and other invasives take over, they form a dense canopy that makes it hard for the oak and maple to grow well. Those trees will win! out in the end, but it will take hundreds of years rather than a much quicker response if the invasives weren't there." For the full story follow this link
‘Tis the Season…
The holiday season is here. This year, why not give your friends and loved ones a gift that brings happiness to people who need your help: a gift of trees! We provide certificates telling your friends that you have planted trees in their honor, naming the country where they are planted. These certificates plant either 450 ($45), 1,000 ($100) or 5,000 ($480) agroforestry trees for a community in need.
With this gift certificate, the recipient will receive a one-year membership with Trees for the Future, our quarterly newsletter, and the satisfaction of knowing their trees are bringing real benefits to families all around the world. Click here to make a donation: http://www.plant-trees.org/donate.php
Events:
Green Festival San Francisco
The San Francisco Green Festival, held from November 9th through the 12th, was a blast – and definitely our most successful event to date. We had several volunteers join us and we were able to connect with residents from the Bay Area and other green businesses and organizations from all over the country. We initiated several business partnerships with environmental websites and green product distributors. We look forward to the first Green Festival in Seattle coming in April 2008. If you live in the Seattle / Tacoma area and would be willing to help at our booth – please let us know! Send an email to: info@treesftf.org
Seed Packages and Call for Submissions from Worldwide Recipients
We are ordering seed to distribute to our tree- planting partners around the world that will be starting their nurseries at the beginning of the next dry season - typically January and February. If you are interested in starting an agroforestry tree-planting project, please get your request in as quickly as possible to receive agroforestry tree seed for your dry-season nursery!
We are also requesting project reports and photos from those of you who have already received seed packets from us in the past. Please describe your project – where it is, what benefits the trees have brought you and how you have continued your tree-planting work. We hope to highlight one project from Africa, Asia or Latin America each month in our monthly e-newsletters. We will include a brief description of your project along with your name and a photo showing the trees you have planted in your projects. Photos showing people and trees will work best. Please submit your report and photos to: info@treesftf.org
TREES is on Skype
Our international members and partners will be excited to learn that you can now call us using Skype, at the username treesftf. There is also a button on the contact page on our website which will allow you to call us directly on skype: http://www.plant-trees.org/contact.htm
Partnerships
New Frontiers
Recent discussions with businesses involved in international ecotourism, biofuel production and marketing of ecologically beneficial products have encouraged TREES to expand your program into South America and Southern Africa, two regions where we have had successful projects in the past. Our technicians will soon be traveling there to meet with local partners. If your business would like to develop a partnership with us, please click here to learn more: http://www.plant-trees.org/partnerships.htm
Nature’s Grilling Products
Wood and charcoal are considered environmentally friendly fuels. TREES agrees - providing that the fuel is sustainably produced. We have just reached an agreement with Nature’s Grilling Products of Colorado to plant a million trees over the next 15 months. These trees will grow in several countries, including Haiti - where unsustainably-produced charcoal is a major cause of environmental devastation. Our program there will plant trees that can be sustainably harvested for several products, including charcoal. Look for the TREES logo on charcoal sold in your favorite supermarket. Visit their website: http://www.nrginternational.com/
Carbon-Free Cards
TREES was recently mentioned in the Telegraph-Journal of New Brunswick, Canada. Our partner, Phil Riebel, has a green vision for greeting cards and is planting a tree for every card his company sells! Click here to see the article:
Click here for Carbon-Free Cards website: www.carbonfreecards.com
BetterWorld Telecom
Have you checked your phone bill recently for your business or home? How would you like to save money while donating 10% of your residential and long-distance phone bill to TREES? Talk to your business owner or office manager about supporting this win-win deal. Sign up online here, or call 866-567-2273, extension 903 and speak with our friend Ali, who will be happy to answer all your questions.
Please forward this newsletter to people who care about the environment and helping establish sustainable communities. Don't forget: with a standard donation of $40 we can plant over 400 trees!
Help plant 400 trees - Plant-Trees.org/Donate
Join our mailing list - Plant-Trees.org/Join_Mail
Thank you for your continued support!
Best regards,
Dave, Grace, Bedru, Gorav, Corrie, Brandy, Francis, Jorge, Guillermo, Gabby, Omar, Subramanian, Gangisetty, Louis, John L., Chris, John M.,Marilou, Oscar, John C., Anne and Adam
Please note that we do not sell, lend or rent out your contact information. Please send an email to info@treesftf.org if you no longer wish to receive these notices, or call 301-565-0630 if you have any questions.
Trees for the Future
P.O. Box 7027
Silver Spring, MD 20907
USA
1.800.643.0001
http://Plant-Trees.org |